


Between The Lies - Three, Version A

by IreneClaire



Series: Various Notions Collection [10]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Bromance, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship, Gen, Minor Injuries, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 04:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4124946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IreneClaire/pseuds/IreneClaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Followup to the original one shot. Part 2 where Stan Edwards tries to come to terms with losing his son to Danny Williams. References of course to Rachel, little Charlie and Grace. Friendship/bromance shared between Steve and Danny. </p><p>This Part 3 has two versions; Version A where Steve may be considered to be OOC. But it's where Steve has his confrontation with Rachel. There will be a Version B which is going to be more canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between The Lies - Three, Version A

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.
> 
> Notes: Original version purged by the annoying muse who wanted Steve to blow up.
> 
> Here's the thing: the muse purged this last weekend in one go. However, after discussing this more logically with my dear beta and beating the muse into submission, it was felt this chapter was OOC for Steve.
> 
> However, the muse (and I the writer) liked it for what it was and decided to post "as is". In fact, I personally wouldn't mind Steve being this way a tiny bit (okay, a lot sometimes!).
> 
> The next chapter will be Version B where the muse was tabled, tied and gagged and the logical writer corrected "OOC Steve". That version B has some similarities to this one, but the tone is quite different. It will be posted this weekend as the absolute final chapter.
> 
> You, the reader, may select whichever you like or hate or 'whatever'!

**Between the Lies - Part Three - Original Version A (End)**

**H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O***

 

"You need to leave." He was livid. Neck thickly corded with tension, the arms which were wrapped from behind were barely enough to keep him from doing something he'd definitely regret.

"Steve, back off," a voice whispered in his ear. "Calm down. Please, calm down for a minute." The voice was firm but just loud enough for only him to hear. However, Steve had no intention of listening. Something which he didn't bother to tell the man standing so tensely just behind his right shoulder. He didn't need to.

"You have no right. Especially here and especially now," Steve ground out, eight short inches from the woman's stricken face. He didn't care about that either. Let her look mortified, ashamed ... without apology, he hoped he was indeed frightening her.

"Danny wants her to stay the night and she damned well will do just that," he growled.

"My daughter ..."

"Needs her father right now," Steve interrupted harshly.

"This is ridiculous! Get out of my way," Rachel said, screwing her courage up a notch. "I'm taking my daughter home!"

"No. You're not," Steve maintained. With both Danny and Grace finally resting upstairs, there was no way on earth he'd back down from his position. Their day had been long and beyond traumatic, the freak accident at the beach parking lot involving a driverless, beat up old box truck had first injured an elderly woman. The chaos had continued when the out of control truck had picked up speed on the slight grade. Traveling in reverse when its old brakes had slipped, the downward roll had sent it on a heedless trajectory directly towards Kamekona's food truck and quaint picnic area. People had screamed as the ancient rusted-out behemoth bore down on them. Some had scattered haphazardly in order to save themselves, but others had been hurt in the melee. Including both Grace and Danny.

"Commander. Steve," Rachel dropped the tone of her voice as if to plead. However, her stunned anger re-intensified when he merely shook his head. "You can't do this."

Steve was in the doorway to his own home. Rachel was on the top step, a fist planted in the middle of the front door to prevent it from being slammed into her face. Behind Steve, Chin Ho Kelly was the one who had his hands wrapped tenaciously around the ex-SEAL's biceps. Steve chose not to respond to the woman's latest comments, the pressure from Chin's fingers were digging mercilessly into his right arm and he focused on that discomfort to keep him grounded. The continued warning was clear and Steve forced himself to take down his temper. So far, he knew that neither Grace nor Danny even suspected that Rachel Edwards was currently poised at his front door. Based on the goings on from that day, it was best that remained the case. So Steve held his tongue, the two regarding each other with hostile intent.

"I want to see her," Rachel demanded once more, her eyes flashed and her face was becoming reddened; the angry blush having begun to spread up from her mottled neck.

"No," Steve replied.

"You can't stop me from seeing my own child," Rachel ground out. "It's bad enough that I found out about this on TV ... on tonight's late night news!" She was seething and beginning to shake from the emotional stress.

"Tonight, I can - and I will."

"You have no right!" Rachel said, her voice rising as frustration got the better of her. "Why didn't anyone call me! Where's Danny? I want to see him and then Grace ... then, I'm taking my daughter home!"

"They're both fine and resting," Steve said as he threw the woman a small bone. "Grace is okay, but I told you that already ... as far as you taking her out of here? No, that's not going to happen," he repeated, a smirk firmly planted on his lips. "Here. Tonight. You need to leave ... go _home_."

Rachel's eyes narrowed just as her fist clenched even more tightly. Her arm was growing tired but she didn't dare move her hand from its spot on the door. But then her eye caught the movement from behind Steve. A very recognizable shadow was on the staircase just above his head and she'd know him anywhere.

"Danny," Rachel ignored Steve's sharp surprised inhale as her ex-husband limped down the steps in their direction. "Daniel! What happened today? Where's Grace?"

Though Steve had tried to remain quiet, Danny had heard the escalating murmurs from the bedroom upstairs. The higher treble of Rachel's voice struck an uncomfortable chord and he'd lurched painfully up in bed, listening hard to be sure. He stumbled badly after setting his feet on the floor. Every muscle from his neck down through his scraped and scoured lower back was instantly on fire with the movement. As bile rose in his throat, he literally had to fight the urge to vomit from the pain. Sweat collected at the base of his throat, leaking downwards to soak into Steve's borrowed t-shirt, but he got moving when he heard Rachel's voice rising even more.

"Rachel? What's going on? Why are you here?" Danny asked, his voice rough and hoarse, practically wrecked from fatigue, pain and heavy medications. "It's late."

"Why am I here?" She burst out in shock. "Why? Why are _you_ here ... why is Grace here? How badly was she injured?"

"What? Injured? No, she's fine." Danny blinked wearily, squinting when his brain went muddy and he couldn't grasp the reason behind the depths of her rage. "Grace is fine ... she got a little scared ... but she's fine."

Danny frowned in confusion. He finally settled on silently asking Steve for help; direction on what was happening with his ex-wife in the doorway to the man's home. The thick lines creasing his face only deepened though when he realized that Chin was holding his friend back and that a very real anger was crackling viciously around them.

"What's going on?" Danny pushed out. With a wince, he lifted his left arm to run his fingers through his sweaty hair. The motion exposed the bloody road rash which ran from the base of his wrist up to his elbow and then higher into the fleshy underside of his arm. Beneath the damage, painful discoloration was already forming. More bruises speckled his lower back where his muscles had been sorely wrenched in the intentional dive he'd taken to the ground. The picnic table which he and Grace had been sitting at had been demolished by the rampant box truck just before it had come to a reluctant halt. In a nearly super-human move, Danny had used his own body to protect his daughter. And Grace ... other than being just a bit frightened, was absolutely unscathed.

_"Danno? Danno, what happened?" The aftermath had been undeniably loud and frightening, with Grace left briefly trapped between her father and the sandy ground. Kamekona had then appeared as if by magic to physically lift the shattered table from Danny's badly scuffed-up back. The picnic area had been demolished and it was truly miraculous that no one had been killed once the truck had come to a screeching, clattering stop and the proverbial dust had settled._

_"Are you alright, Monkey?" Danny coughed, grimacing as his skinned neck grated with every turn of his head. "I'm not sure, but are you okay?"_

_"Yes," Grace sniffled. "I'm ... okay. But Danno ... your arms are bleeding."_

_"It's nothing ... just a few scrapes, baby," he'd said. But at the time, with his back beginning to feel as if it had been flayed, he hadn't been entirely certain of that fact._

"Daniel? You ... your arms?" For a startled moment, Rachel paused, stunned by the streaks of blood-red scratches which were only starting to scab over for their newness. She'd only returned from Maui earlier that very same evening. Like many people, she'd watched the late night news to catch up on current events. What she hadn't anticipated seeing though was a taped broadcast about a freak accident where an old box truck had slipped its brakes and rocketed backwards across a beach parking lot. People had scattered near a food truck when the errant vehicle jumped the curb, a small picnic area had been demolished, and there were a few injuries reported.

The media taping had interviewed the excited large Hawaiian owner of the food truck and Rachel would have recognized Kamekona anywhere. At first, she had smiled because the big man was eating up the attention. His flamboyant _shaka_ sign and gregarious reassurances that this food truck was _'a-okay brah!'_ and that he'd be open for business very soon with new tables was endearing. Until the piece had cut to a few interviews, shots of the aftermath from the truck's out of control path of destruction, and two-second snippet of a dark-haired child that looked incredibly like her own daughter. A few desperate phone calls later had confirmed that suspicion and when neither Grace nor her ex-husband had answered her frantic calls, she'd tracked them both down.

"What?" At an immediate loss to answer Rachel's sudden concern for him, he wound up repeating himself with Grace's frightened voice stuck in his head. "I swear she's okay. There isn't a scratch on her."

Rachel's mouth opened soundlessly and then closed, snapping shut so hard she clacked her teeth. Her eyes roamed the rest of his body, but she didn't see what was hidden on his back beneath the wrinkled t-shirt. All she could see was his bone-deep exhaustion and the slight hunch of his upper body.

"Danny." She knew that she should inquire about his injuries. However, she'd long ago lost her ability to be or even sound reasonable since stress and not knowing enough of the details had pushed her over a critical edge. So now, though she could see a few of Danny's scrapes and bruises for herself, those only meant Grace could also have been equally hurt. She needed Grace and she needed to get her daughter home ... safely home ... where she belonged.

"I came over here to pick up Grace. Right now. Please, get her things together and then get my daughter so I can take her home!"

"I...no ... _why_?" Danny stammered, his voice at first trailing off entirely. With a distinct effort, he shook his head, one hand waving idly through the air in confusion. "No. It's late, Rachel. She's sleeping."

"Danny, go back upstairs," Chin urged quietly. "Everything's fine here and Rachel was just leaving.

"What are you so damned afraid of?" The abruptly confrontational question, which was entirely aimed at Rachel, came out of Steve's mouth like a thunder clap and it seemed to even startle him. All conversation came to a grinding halt and for a decent span of time, no one moved or spoke. During the tense lull, Steve garnered a deeply inhaled breath. The pause had allowed him a long second to consider something; time to allow the germ of the idea to percolate and take a firmer hold.

_Fear. Of course._

"You're afraid. That's all this can be about because I sure has hell can't think of any other reason as to why you'd be like this. What pushed you to leave someone who's always loved you? Use them and pull them closer, only to push them away again. You're afraid, Rachel. What happened in your life that you can't deal with ... _love_ and people who genuinely care about each other? What happened ... because you reject the best of everything and in doing that, cause pain for everyone else. Does it make you feel better? Do you get off on it? Is it for the money?"

"Steve." Despite Chin's continued silent pleas for him to leave, Danny hadn't moved from the staircase. His confused whisper ratcheted up a notch and he scowled at the back of Steve's head. "What're you doing? What's going on?"

Leaving the room was a much too unreasonable request with his own ex-wife standing directly on his best friend's front step. It was an impossible thing to demand with the Asian literally restraining his very angry friend. Steve wanted to rip Rachel's head off and Danny was therefore, irrevocably stuck in place. The two were nose to nose and full of an incredible hostility which Danny couldn't entirely grasp. He'd been roused from a dead sleep and his mind was still drenched in too many pain killers to accurately keep up with the conversation. For all of that though, he could see that his ex-wife's face had changed from anger to some sort of troubled grief.

"Can you all please tell me what's going on?" Danny asked. He wavered in place, desperately wanting to sit down. Better yet to lay down as his vision rippled like a flux of vertigo. The urge to be sick came with that surge and he closed his eyes with a sick swallow. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Rachel, it's late. You can't have Grace; she's sound asleep."

"You're crazy," Rachel murmured to Steve. She completed ignored Danny and whatever he'd just said in order to stare at Steve. He was horribly wrong, so incredibly _wrong_ and she shook her head in a vain attempt to explain herself. "I've always loved Danny. I didn't want to hurt him."

"Really? You have a helluva way of showing it," Steve muttered in disgust. "Even before you told the truth about Charlie, Danny wanted you back. He would have moved the heavens to have you back ... whether Charlie was his son or not ... he wanted his family back together again. And through all of that, Rachel, that baby had always been his son! How could you do that to him and keep up the charade for so long?"

"Just. Please. _Stop_." Danny's eyes were wide as he stared at Rachel's face, yet only managed to catch Chin's sympathetic eye. The argument was escalating at a startling pace and going down a most astonishing and very treacherous path. Grappling the banister, his head throbbed in time with the ache in his lower back and he fought the need to sit. "Stop ... this isn't the time."

Steve couldn't stop though; his anger had only worsened at the sound of Danny's pained voice. And now, the more Rachel tried to argue her case, the more he remembered past conversations with his friend and mentally called upon stolen voicemails heard when Grace had been been kidnapped. Danny had always been about Grace ... and Rachel. He'd have taken his ex-wife back in a warm heartbeat and she'd led him on only to trample him ruthlessly into the ground. Again and again.

"Do you think Stan's going to walk away because you _want_ him to? He's had a son that he's loved for three years and that man is not going to be able to do that anymore than Danny ever could. Is he paying for the medical bills, Rachel? The hospital, the specialized care, the multiple medical opinions? Those are no small things to ask of a man who's been that boy's father in every way since he's been born!" Steve nearly snarled his own case into her face. He was failing at keeping his voice low, too. With all his heart he didn't want to upset Danny, nor wake up Grace. Nonetheless, he could barely control himself because Danny had brought these very concerns to the table just the prior day. Once more, the bare facts of the matter could be beyond everyone's single control once it hit a court of law. If it did ... if Stan Edwards decided to exercise any of his own just rights.

"Steven," Danny's voice broke through and shook Steve loose enough from his anger to force him to at least inhale a settling breath. He didn't entirely cease his train of thought though; try as he may, Steve had to finish speaking these things which were much too close to the tip of his tongue to keep mute.

"Have you ever heard of paternity fraud, Rachel? It's when a mother lies about the biological father of her child; when she knows or suspects that he's not and still ... lies. And this is exactly what you did to Stan, too. You lied to everyone ... you tricked and used both Danny and Stan. You've potentially hurt your children and you could lose both of them and wind up with nothing."

Rachel stared at him fully now, her hand dropped for the door and wound up cradling the reddened skin around her own neck. She was afraid, but it was like she already said because she loved Danny too much. But her heart lurched inside her chest as the meaning of Steve's last sentence crept nastily into her brain. She couldn't lose both Grace and Charlie ... she couldn't bear that happening.

"Charlie was never supposed to get so sick," Rachel whispered thinly. "None of this was supposed to happen."

"I'm sorry, what does that mean exactly?" Steve sneered. "Is that your newest excuse? Because we all know that you never would have confessed to who his really father was if he weren't - is that supposed to make this all better?" Steve shifted intentionally to block Rachel from Danny's view. He could hear Chin's warnings as well, none of which were healthy and meant that he should stop, yet he simply couldn't hold back now that he'd begun. Fingers dug firmly into his arm, begging censure, but it was much too late.

"Are you afraid of Danny? His job? What else have you lied about? Why did you hide the truth about Charlie from Danny? Why did you leave him when you both had a chance at reconciling?"

"I don't have to tell you anything, Commander," Rachel ground out, her eyes flashing defensively as her temper re-emerged. "You're not my interrogator and I don't owe you an explanation. What are you going to do? Arrest me if I don't leave because I came for my own daughter?"

"You have no idea how much I'd like to do that right now," Steve purred dangerously. "In the very least, you're trespassing."

"Rachel. Steve. We've gone over this," Danny muttered sickly from the middle of the staircase. "Steve, that's enough. Rachel, go home. Please. I'll bring Grace back as usual; she's not going anywhere in the middle of the night."

But he was ignored. He could see the pulse point slamming the thin white portion of skin by Rachel's left eye. From the inside out, it twitched and vibrated as her temper escalated. Danny took a tentative step closer, wincing as the movement rattled sore muscles. He was determined to put an end to the argument, but before he could get there, Rachel had begun to verbally round on Steve.

"When I found out I was pregnant with Charlie, I thought I could do it. I thought I could be the wife he needed because being a cop in New Jersey is easier than this damned Governor's Task Force. Danny's been exposed to things he never would have ... the danger is ten times worse. He's almost died ... _you_ , Commander, have almost died! My daughter was kidnapped!" Rachel was on the verge of tears now; equally unable to put a stop to her own tirade as emotions continued to escalate.

"But ... when Danny didn't join me at the airport that night, he proved it. He didn't even call until it was too late. When the Task Force fell apart, you dragged Danny right back into it."

"Peterson had nothing to do with Five-0 and I wasn't dragged into anything against my will," Danny objected. His interruption was instantaneous and drew everyone's attention towards where he was braced on the staircase. He was closer now, standing next to Chin, but still buffered from Rachel by the breadth of Steve's body.

"I needed to be here ... I needed to set things straight. Steve and Kono ... they both needed help and the issues with Governor Jameson were ... astronomical. The team was setup and Steve was incarcerated for something he didn't do! I couldn't just leave, Rachel. I just couldn't up and leave with things the way they were here."

"That makes it even worse," Rachel suddenly spat out. "Your loyalties are skewed, Daniel. Which family do you really want? Ours ... or this one."

"Why do they have to be different? There shouldn't be a difference between the two," Danny breathed out carefully. Steve's fury was on the rise again and he knew Rachel well. Even if his beleaguered brain still hadn't quite gotten caught up to speed, he at least knew their argument was only beginning to touch a Titanic-sized iceberg. They'd argued multiple times about where his loyalties truly were and they were never going to see eye to eye. Except this time, Steve was involved.

"But there's always been a difference. A big one which is even more apparent here in Hawaii ... in this universe you're married to your job and not to me. _Never_ to me!" Rachel hissed, tears now streaming down her face. "I can't _be_ what you want, Danny. I can't pray or hope or wonder if you'll come home safely every time you walk out that door!"

"You married a cop, Rachel. What do you want me to say ... or do? Quit? Because that's never going to happen," Danny dumbly replied. He was tired, achy and completely unwilling to go down this old over-used path. He glanced again to Chin and then to Steve before scowling unhappily back to Rachel. "Listen, I can't do this right now." The murmur was soft and filled with an exhausted pain. As soon as the last word left his mouth, Chin let go of Steve to gently brace Danny as he tottered.

"You need to get off your feet, _brah_ ," Chin whispered discreetly. "I'm really sorry that this is happening now, but you really need to lay down, Danny."

He nodded as way of reply, but still Danny didn't move. He couldn't until he was assured she'd peacefully left the house. "Rachel, go home. Please. It's late and I just can't do this right now. We've gone over this way too many times in the past and it doesn't work. _We_ just don't work."

Steve was speechless. The two people were on entirely different planes of existence. Their perspectives were complete polar opposites. Where Rachel only saw the potential for horror and danger; Danny saw himself as in a position to protect everyone he loved. _"I want to make this island a safer place for Grace, Steven."_ So could it really be that simple? That in her fear, Rachel tried to protect by hiding the things she loved? Hiding them away ... squirreling them away so, that her in her mind, they'd be safe?

"You don't understand because this was of life is ingrained in you ... it's part of all of you. _Danny_ can't do this tonight? Well, I do it every day." Rachel paused to wipe her face. She shrugged dramatically, her voice then breaking as she tried to explain herself.

"I didn't know what it meant to be a cop's wife until I was one and I can't _be_ that type of person. Yes, I love him, but I can't give him what he needs when he gets home from work after a bad day. I learned that truth when I was pregnant with Grace ... when his first partner was ... murdered. We named our daughter after her ... and I'm honored by that, but I can't live and breathe his job alongside him every minute of every hour and be expected to keep my sanity. The horror, the fear of what Danny really did and does every single day - _his normal_ \- it could never be mine and that danger isn't a _'what if'_ anymore, it's only a _'when'_."

"Rachel, I never asked you for anything," Danny softly stated. "I only wanted us to be together."

"No? _Together_ \- is that all?" Rachel snorted both words out in derision, her focus swinging wildly back towards Danny. "The cold dinners? The late nights which became _no_ nights ... explaining to Grace why daddy isn't coming home again because he had to work ... again. Or worse yet, having to watch you leave in the middle of dinner or even during a school recital? I had to deal with the tears and the explanations - and I ran out of them! You didn't see what you were asking me to do because you weren't there, Daniel."

Rachel stood straighter, now resolute in getting out the entirety of her feelings. She glared defensively at Steve as she choked out each and every subsequent statement. "Being married to a detective is backing my car into a parking space ... _just in case_ I need to be more aware; and I always need to be more aware ... more on my guard. I began to see criminals everywhere I went. Honest to god felons in grocery stores and even in the library. I became an extension of Danny and his work. The stress was - and is - too much. The responsibility for myself was too much and then we added Grace into the mix, and now there's Charlie to consider. Tell me, why I can't sit peacefully in a restaurant and just ... have a nice dinner? Why do I have to sit with my back to the wall and make sure I know where each and every emergency exit is located? You all might willingly accept this, but it's not the normal that I want and I can't support him like this twenty-four hours a day; seven days a week ... it's exhausting ... and terrifying."

"All of that still doesn't fully explain lying about Charlie. Not by a long shot," Steve maintained. "If you loved Danny enough, you'd be there for him no matter the circumstances. If you loved him enough and trusted him ... _enough_ ... if you believed in him and the oath he took to protect and serve ... this _thing_ about Charlie never would have happened."

"I don't need _you_ to understand," Rachel said. The basic truth was that she simply wasn't strong enough to be married to a cop. But even if that honest truth was broadcasted across the airwaves, her decision to hide Charlie from his father was indeed unforgivable. She couldn't deny that or claim it as part of her martial issues with Danny or her terror for his chosen profession.

"It wasn't what I meant to do," she whispered. "I made a mistake. None of this is that simple for me."

"Life isn't going to be about you all the time, Rachel," Steve bluntly replied. "Danny only needed to know that you were there for him. Waiting ... with pride despite what might or might not have happened. He wanted his family together. He only ever wanted the truth ... and now he wants to know his son. What I would like to know is how do you lie to someone who's never lied to you?"

Steve shifted again, his opinion clear, knowing too that he likely had gone too far that night with his own anger. He might reluctantly understand some of what she'd said, but he didn't need to go any further than his final words. His loyalty was to Danny and even to Grace, who also had been damaged by her mother's actions and decisions. He cracked his jaw and heaved in another deep breath of air before letting it out with in a somewhat patient rush.

"Danny and Grace are here because Danny wasn't feeling well enough to drive after the accident at the beach, Rachel. He's got some bruises and scrapes along his arms and on his back; nothing more. When I picked them up, we came back here to rest and have dinner. That's all there is to it. Grace is perfectly fine, so go home. Like Danny said, it's late and she's sleeping. He'll have her back on time and to whatever schedule you two have worked out. But definitely, not before."

The door closed then, snicking shut in its finality to the last bit of information which Steve was willing to deliver. His ultimatum about what would happen that evening was crystal clear. Rachel stood there though for a long time, just staring straight ahead. If Steve had been correct about anything, for all her pains and for all the lies she'd told, she could lose everything, including the children.

**H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O* H5O***

 

"I'm sorry, Danny," Steve said as he hurried towards his friend. The knuckles on one hand were white from the grip his friend was maintaining on the lower post to the banister. Chin had resorted to slinging an arm around Danny's waist to keep him from sagging to a seated position. That support was a mixed bag though based on the pain creasing Danny's face.

"She ... just showed up and began spouting demands. I didn't want to let her in the house or wake either of you. I reacted ... badly. I'm sorry."

"No. I should ... _should_ ... have called her," Danny ground out through clenched teeth, intentionally glossing over what just had occurred. They would talk more later. In truth, Steve hadn't said anything which wasn't valid. In fact, Danny was beyond thankful for Steve having his back in more ways than just one. He was tired and couldn't think straight. While the confrontation had been far from pleasant, Danny alone and by himself would have likely had an entirely different outcome. "She must have gotten back early. Then she saw the accident on the news ... s'okay. It's okay."

"Are you sure?" Steve asked. He was incredibly worried and he needed a bit more than a simple ' _okay_ ' to confirm he'd not gone too far. Way too far.

"Steve, it's really ... _truly_ ... okay," Danny whispered. He grinned soothingly and then wobbled, with Chin having to catch more of his weight. He shook his head ruefully, pulling on tight abrasions which made him wince even more. " _Man_ , I hurt."

"Be all of this as it may, talk later. It's over for tonight and you need to get off your feet now," Chin now insisted more adamantly. "I know I'm probably hurting your back, but I don't know how else to help you."

"Can't _be_ helped at all," Danny assured him. He needed their support and options on where he could be touched were limited. Steve had opted for elbow and hand, but even Danny's elbows were marred. "I'll be fine ... in a day or two."

Every part of his back ached, scored by the rough boards of the picnic table when it splintered. The scrapes, cuts and bruises were all technically very superficial. But he couldn't sit with ease, or even lay on his back on a soft mattress. The softest t-shirt caused a scratchy pain where it snagged the ruined skin. Only the array of ointments and antibiotic creams smeared over his arms and the skin of his back were a blessing. Yet, they still didn't help with easing the pain which flared with every move he made, so he'd been reluctantly taking pain medication, too.

The three turned at a painfully slow speed to begin their careful escort back up the stairs. But they stopped in their tracks when they saw the little girl at the top of the staircase. Wearing one of Steve's over-sized t-shirts which hung to her knees, Grace was standing motionless. Just watching.

"Grace? Monkey, how long have you been standing there?" Danny asked worriedly.

"I love you, Danno," Grace whispered. Her eyes were shining with tears yet none would be falling. Danny could easily tell that by the stern tilt of her chin. But when she spoke, the tears were evident in her voice, evenly measured with just enough anger. However long she'd been there, she'd certainly heard quite a bit.

"I'm going to stay with you ... _live_ with you. I"m old enough to decide for myself and it's what I want. There's a bus stop for school right at the corner of your house ... I'm old enough to be alone until you get home from work .. and it's closer to school, too. Even the high school is going to be closer, Danno!" With ever word, she was advancing towards them, her eyes solely on her father. By the time she'd stated her last word, she was one step above Danny and losing the battle with herself to not cry.

"I can and I will," she breathed out adamantly. "It's my choice. Mine and nobody else's ... _mine_."

He shushed her with a finger to her lips. His thumb wiped the lone tear which had managed to break loose on a downward track. But his teary-eyed smile of pride told her all she needed to know.

_**~ Version A - END ~** _


End file.
